What’s Better Fishing From a Boat or Dry Land?

When you start fishing, one of the choices you’re left with is whether you want to go fishing from a boat or dry land. While they both have their advantages and disadvantages, it really depends on your fishing goals and preferences. 

Later on, we’ll break down everything you need to know about both options so that you can make the choice that suits you best. 

This article will also answer all of the questions below:

“What’s better, fishing from a boat or dry land?” “Shore fishing vs. boat fishing” “Should you fish from land or a boat?” “Boat fishing vs. Fishing from dry land.”

What’s Better Fishing From a Boat or Dry Land?

The main difference between boat fishing and fishing from dry land is time and cost. Using a boat to go fishing can give you a lot more range, as you can move into spots that you couldn’t have before, but it can also be a lot more costly and time-consuming to purchase and maintain the boat.

This is why many anglers choose to go fishing from dry land. Is that the right choice? That depends on you. The rest of this article will discuss both options’ pros and cons in more detail to help you make the best choice.

Dry Land (Shore) Fishing vs. Boat Fishing: The Direct Comparison

To help you get a complete picture of which one is better suited to you, we created a direct comparison with both options’ benefits. Plus, we also searched the internet to get the opinions of fellow anglers for you too.

Benefits of Dry Land (Shore) Fishing

Let’s start with dry land fishing.

Affordable – The first and obvious benefit is that it’s inexpensive. There wouldn’t be any need for purchasing a boat, which would be by far your most significant expense if you were to choose the other option. All you need is your usual fishing rod, bait/lures, and the rest of your gear. This makes it a great option for beginners, as you don’t want to jump in with sky-high expenses when you’re only starting.

Not a lot of effort/Time required – Apart from the fun time you are fishing, you won’t need to spend a lot of additional time maintaining anything. However, when you are using a boat for fishing, there is a huge amount of maintenance involved.

Stealthy – Additionally, fishing from dry land allows you to be a lot stealthier. The sound and shadows of the boat’s movement can act as a warning to fish, which of course, lowers your chances of catching anything. Where waters are shallow, this will be a lot worse as well. So, that’s another benefit of dry land fishing, as it’s a lot stealthier.

Easier to catch fish – There’s no net involved when fishing from dry land. All you need to do is your fishing rod and reel it in. Compared to boat fishing, where you will often need your net, it’s a lot easier.

Safer – Although boat fishing is also safe, there are still fewer risks when fishing from dry land.

Benefits of Boat Fishing

Okay, so if boat fishing is expensive and time-consuming, why do people do it? Well, it also has some quite significant upsides, which we explained below.

More potential & types – When fishing from a boat, there is a lot more potential to catch “trophy fish.” Plus, you’re also much likely to get a nice variety of fish. This is one of the main disadvantages of dry land fishing, as most anglers tend to get the same types of fish, especially when only sticking to their local area.

Range and Coverage – When boat fishing, you have the option to go much further out and visit a lot more spots. Not only this, but you can visit them much faster, which gives you more range and coverage.

Not packed – This point depends on your local area. We searched the internet and found an interesting comment made by a user from Arizona in a forum, so we thought we’d include it.

“I just started fishing from a boat after being a shore fisherman since I was a kid. I like it better on my boat because it gets  kind of crowded on the shore sometimes, and with the boat, you can get to a lot of places that you wouldn’t be able to on foot cause the brush is too thick or something like that.”

So, if your local fishing bank often easily gets packed and crowded, it might be worth considering a boat if there aren’t many other good spots.

Your Experience Level & Fishing Goals

Making the right choice is very dependant on your experience level and fishing goals. If you’re starting and don’t have easy access to a boat (for example, through a friend), dry water fishing would probably make more sense.

This is also a common point we’ve heard from some of our friends and users in fishing forums. 

Many of them said that they’ve always been fishing from the dry water; however, they will go out and fish from the boat when the time is right. 

So, if you’re a beginner, fishing from the dry water might be a wise choice. 

The other big factor is your fishing goals. If you’re looking to catch a large variety of fish and go for the best possible “trophy catches,” then a boat would probably be more suited. On the other hand, if you’re looking to have a bit of fun while also catching fish, dry water fishing is probably best for you. 

Final Thoughts

That’s it! We hope you have enjoyed this article on dry water fishing vs. boat fishing. Just remember that it’s all down to preference. We may have said that if you’re more experienced, you may prefer boat fishing. However, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case for you. 

Additionally, you can also start with dry water fishing and then get into boat fishing later on. We enjoy both, as they both have their benefits and it really depends on how you’re feeling. 

You might also want to consider getting a kayak for fishing. The costs of a kayak are quite low compared to other types of boats, and it also doesn’t exactly need a lot of maintenance. This gives you the benefit of moving around the sea and finding those sweet fishing spots while also keeping your costs low.

If you want to get into kayak fishing, you may also like our recent article on Kayak saltwater fishing tips. 

In this article, we answered all of the following questions:

• What’s better, fishing from a boat or dry land?
• Shore fishing vs. boat fishing
• Should you fish from land or a boat?
• Boat fishing vs. Fishing from land

Frequently Asked Questions

Lastly, we also wanted to answer some frequently asked questions. 

What Are The Best Types of Boats For Beginners? 

As we have already mentioned, we like Kayaks as they are affordable and don’t require a lot of maintenance.

However, our other picks would be:

• Dinghies
• Fish and Ski
• Bowriders
• Aluminum fishing boats
• Pontoon boat 

How Can I Go Boatfishing Without Buying a Boat? 

Sometimes you want to try it first before committing to purchasing a boat. And we totally suggest doing that. 

You could check if any of your friends have a boat, or if not, you can also look to rent one for a time period, probably one day. 

What Else Do I Need To Have With Me? 

This depends if you’re looking to go saltwater fishing or shore fishing. If you are looking to go saltwater fishing, you can check out a recent guide that will explain everything you need.